Rare Elephant Filmed in Cambodian Forest

The New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has released what it says is the first high-quality video footage of the elusive Asian elephant in the wild in Cambodia, where civil war and environmental degradation have made sightings of the animal rare. The video, shot by photographer Allan Michaud in August, captures a male Asian elephant feeding on grass near a road in the Seima Protection Forest, a recently created, 1,100-square-mile conservation area located in the foothills of the Annamite mountains, along Cambodia’s eastern border with Vietnam. According to a 2006 study by the WCS and the Cambodian government, about 116 wild Asian elephants live in the protected area, but most photos of the animal have been taken by camera traps. Edward Pollard of the WCS’s Cambodia Program called the footage “visual confirmation that Seima is vitally important for biodiversity.”